The Civil War Letters & Diaries of Sgt. Charles T. Bowen, 12th U.S. Inf., 1861-1865. Edited by Edward K. Cassedy. hc, dj, 8.5 x 11, 590pp., index.

Dear Friends at Home: The Civil War Letters and Diaries of Sergeant Charles T. Bowen, Twelfth United States Infantry 1861-1864

By Edward K. Cassedy

In August of 1861, Charles T. Bowen joined the Twelfth United States Infantry Regiment. Unlike most young men who answered the call from their country at the outbreak of the Civil War, by joining ìVolunteerî regiments from their states, Bowen enlisted for three years with the ìRegulars.î

The Regulars were usually career soldiers who belonged to regiments of the federal government. Their role before the war was to man the forts protecting the harbors of major cities, and Indian outposts in the west. By the summer of 1862, three brigades of Regular infantry regiments served in the Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac.

Charles T. Bowen was 23 years old when he joined the Twelfth United States Regiment as a private. He and Kate, his wife of three months, lived in Washington Mills, near Utica, New York. Bowen spent the first months of his army duty at Fort Hamilton, which protected the Verrazano-Narrows at the entrance to the harbor of New York City. Fort Hamilton was also the headquarters for the Regulars. By the spring of 1862, the Twelfth Regiment was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, commanded by General McClellan. The Twelfth Regimentís ìbaptism of fireî took place at Gaines` Mill.

During his three years of enlistment in the Regulars, Bowen rose to the rank of Sergeant. His discharge papers show that he participated in fifteen battles, from Yorktown to Petersburg. During all of this time he wrote hundreds of letters to his wife and family, as well as keeping detailed diaries of all of his activities. After the war, these letters and diaries were gathered together and preserved by his family. In another era, Charles T. Bowen could have become a journalist. His letters are very well written, and filled with every aspect of army life during the Civil War. His descriptions of the battles in which he fought are oft-times very graphic. He did not hesitate to express his opinions about the political affairs of the time, or of the officers under whom he served.

With the help of three generations of descendants, these letters and diaries are transcribed and assembled into this work.